The UCC's ancestors were the Pilgrims, a group committed to religious freedom and civic responsibility. Our history is full of notable firsts:

We were the first denomination to ordain an African-American (1785), a woman (1853) and an openly gay person (1972).

Our parents in faith opened the first school for the deaf (1817). When Southern news stations imposed a blackout on civil rights coverage, Martin Luther King Jr. asked the UCC to intervene.

Its efforts led to a federal court ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property.

The life of the spirit and life in the world are always in conversation for us. We can't have one without the other or we wouldn't be the UCC.

Our public stands on social issues often gets the most press, but those statements are the natural outgrowth of our belief that God loves everything in creation with a passionate, inclusive, unconditional love that demands we live as reflections of that love.

We believe that as followers of Jesus and heirs of his spirit, we are to be the incarnation of the divine presence in the world, just as he was.

Sometimes our faith is acted out on the national stage, but it is in our neighborhood churches that the vast majority of our faith life is lived out.

Our local church is where we gather to hear God's word in the Bible and help one another understand how those words should shape our lives.

It is here that we experience care for our bodies, minds and spirits and learn to care for others. It is here that leaders for today and tomorrow are shaped and here that those leaders learn that the true heart of leadership is service.

It is in our local congregation that we learn that we are God's unique creation and that we are part of a larger community to whom we are accountable.

It is in our local churches that we pray and play, sing and keep silent.

Like every human community, our local and national churches are far from perfect. We are no more or less broken or sinful than any other.

Our members can be petty, thoughtless, prejudiced and sometimes downright mean. We can be blind to our flaws, slow to change and protective of our status.

If you have been on the receiving end of such behavior in a UCC congregation, I ask your forgiveness on its behalf. We're trying to be better, but we still get it wrong sometimes.

We want to hear you, and we would be honored to have you give us another chance.

In the UCC, faith and life are conversation partners. We try to have what we say on Sunday make a difference in the way we live Monday through Saturday.

We think that every area of life should be informed by our faith. And we think that a faithful life is also joyous -- hence the flash mob wedding, luau, mock funeral and cookies.

Listening for the still-speaking God, engaging in ministries of extravagant welcome, changing the lives of individuals and communities through ministries of justice, peace and compassion -- that's the United Church of Christ.